First Impressions
by onlyonechairleft
Summary: Wyatt brings his girlfriend to meet his family for the first time, and she makes quite the first impression.


Disclaimer: I do not own either Charmed or Medium, both of which belong to people far more successful than I. :)

A/N: This has been bouncing around in my head for so long, I just had to write it down. And now it's written down, I can happily move on to the next one... :)

Please note: I have taken serious liberties with timelines, etc, twisting them to fit what I need. Just roll with it. :)

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"Wyatt, I'm not sure about this." Ariel twisted a strand of hair around her index finger, a sure sign of nerves. Her boyfriend sighed and grabbed her hand, dragging her forwards.

"It's not like I even have a choice. The _second_ that Mel let the cat out of the bag, this was a foregone conclusion." He may have been pretending he was anxious too, but Ariel knew he was quietly happy that he finally had a reason to force her to meet his family. They'd been dating for almost five months- he'd already met her parents and her little sisters several times, Turnabout was fair play, she supposed. Except, of course, that _her_ parents and her sisters didn't live in the same city as them, and Wyatt never had to risk running into her mother in the supermarket. And she'd met some of his family- Melinda and Chris were already good friends of hers. For Gods sake, Chris and Bridget had been the ones who introduced her to Wyatt!

Gah. The nerves in her stomach fluttered wildly and she forced herself to take a deep breath and just keep following Wyatt. His mothers restaurant was a block away- closed for the day for a private party, celebrating Wyatt's parent's anniversary. They were twenty four years married, and still going strong, apparently. Ariel swallowed her nerves- again- and forced a bright smile onto her face. Dammit, she was going to make a good impression if it killed her.

And if that didn't work, Chris would rescue her, right? Bridget would kill him if he left her out to dry. Of course, Bridget had wriggled her way out of _her_ invitation, claiming that she was far too busy studying for finals (Bridget? Studying? Yeah, right. In what universe?) to take a day off just to meet Chris' family. It's not like _they_ were going out- Ariel had no such excuse, having had Wyatt Halliwell wrapped around her little finger since the day they met. Even Bridget had agreed, telling her to go and that it would be good for her to meet the Halliwell clan. Hah. When she was finished killing Wyatt, she'd move on to her sister. Wyatt stopped outside the restaurant door and shot her a quick smile. One final deep breath, and a quick hair and makeup check of her reflection in the doorway, and Ariel brightened her smile again and pushed the door open herself. Her mother didn't raise a coward- and she'd be damned if she let Wyatt see just how nervous she was about this. She regretted it a moment later, as every eye in the room turned to her and her grin faltered, for just a second.

From the crowd of people, a small dark-haired women emerged, wearing Wyatt's bright grin. She could only be his mother- though, Chris had said that all three Halliwell women looked alike.

"You must be Ariel- it's lovely to meet you sweetie. _Finally._" The 'finally' was rather pointedly directed at Wyatt, who grinned sheepishly.

"It's lovely to meet you too, Mrs. Halliwell." Ariel extended her hand in greeting, but the woman pushed it aside and pulled the girl into a firm embrace instead.

"Call me Piper, honey. You're the first girl my little boy has ever wanted to introduce to his family- that means you're a keeper." Ariel didn't have to see him to know that Wyatt was blushing furiously. She managed to not laugh, though several of his cousins had given in to the urge and were snickering behind their hands. Melinda emerged from the swarm of dark-haired teenage girls clustered by the closed bar and grabbed her hand.

"Come on Ariel- I'll introduce you to everyone, seeing as Wyatt seems to have lost his ability to talk." Ariel followed the girl, slightly nervous, but trusting that Melinda would stick with her in the crowd. Melinda babbled on, introducing all her cousins- she hadn't been joking when she'd told her there were a lot of P names in the family- and Ariel concentrated on remembering them all. Patty and Penny were the twins- they were Melinda's age, and their brother Henry was a year older. Prudence and Pandora were a year older and younger than Melinda, respectively and the youngest girl was Pearl. Ariel was good with names and faces- she made a point to remember them all, exchanging handshakes and hugs and forcing their names and faces into her memory with the _feel_ of them- something her mother had taught her when she was a child. She ignored the strange looks that the twins gave her, choosing instead to engage Prudence in conversation about which college the girl would be attending the following year. Ariel was happy to recommend the University of San Francisco as an excellent college.

"Sometimes though, the best part of going to college is going far, far away from your family." She couldn't help but mention it- Wyatt, she thought, regretted not moving further away from home. Chris, at least, had travelled the world (with her sister), but even he was settled back in San Fran. She caught the wistful gleam in Prudence's eye and saw it matched in Melinda.

The girls deftly turned the conversation back on her, and she never got to question it. She knew, though, that neither girl would leave the city for college and she couldn't help but feel a little saddened by it.

The party swirled around her, noise and voices distracting her and keeping her laughing and entertained for hours- the Halliwell children were charming and clever and excellent entertainment, and she barely noticed that she hadn't seen Wyatt since she'd arrived. He was across the room, deep in conversation with his mother and two women who could only be his aunts, Piper's sisters. The conversation looked… heated, to say the least. Wyatt's dad, Leo, distracted her from it, taking her arm and leading her to the bar and offering her a drink. She was over twenty-one, sure, but she'd learned a long, long time ago that drinking heavily did not agree with her- the occasional beer, sure, but any more than that and a lot of the thoughts that flitted across her mind tending to start coming out of her mouth. Bridget, who could handle alcohol as well as their mother (and better than either Ariel or Marie) thought it was hilarious.

"A beer would be great, thanks." She turned down his offer of a glass, refusing to feel self-conscious about it either, as none of the women around her were drinking beer, and they all held glasses in their hands. She refused to care- she was a lot like her mother, that way. Beer that came in a glass had better come from a tap, because otherwise it belonged in a bottle.

The twins were staring at her oddly again and she just raised the bottle to her lips and focused her attention on Leo. She spent some time talking to him- he was a teacher, and she wanted to teach high school when she graduated, so he entertained her with some of the more outrageous things his students had done over the years. He wouldn't tell her any of the embarrassing stories about Wyatt though, which was annoying.

Eventually, Wyatt made his way back her side, just as Henry Junior was regaling her with the very embarrassing stories that Leo had refused to tell her. She was on her second beer and enjoying his cousin's company immensely- Henry was a charmer, no doubt taking after his father who, Ariel had to admit, was looking _very_ well for a man in his fifties. She had to shake her head to clear that thought, and quickly.

"Wyatt, Henry has been telling me all about your teddy bear, Wuvey. Is it true that he still sleeps in your bed at home?" The bear certainly wasn't in Wyatt's bed when _she_ was there- but Henry didn't need to know that. The taller man coloured horribly and she knew it was, in part at least, true. For the first time since she arrived in the restaurant, she let her laughter ring out, long and loud, across the room. She didn't see the appraising look that the Halliwell matriarch shot her way.

As the party began to wind down, Chris finally showed up- Bridget, to Ariel's disappointment- was not with him. She wasn't too surprised though- Chris didn't turn up until everyone who wasn't family was leaving. Bridget was, like, his only close friend and she made up for Chris's anti-socialism by having more actual friends than most people had on Facebook. She should have known that when Bridge said she wasn't coming that she wouldn't see Chris until the end of the evening.

Everyone was clearing out, slowly, and Ariel found herself sitting with Chris, Melinda and Prudence and beer number four (two more than she usually went with, but she was sure she'd sweated off the rest of the beer through a combination of nerves and fear). Wyatt had disappeared again, talking Law with Henry senior and Darryl Morris. Wyatt wanted to be a cop- Ariel hadn't got the heart to tell him that he wasn't cut out for it; he was too soft, too sensitive by half to deal with the crap that people flung at one another. He would make an excellent journalist though, following in his aunt Phoebe's footsteps and writing for the tribune. Ariel chanced a sideways glance at Chris, giggling to herself under her breath. _Chris _would make an excellent prosecutor. He could handle the crap that the world had to show without burning out.

She only realized that she'd said that out loud when Chris glanced at her, startled.

"Who told you I want to be a prosecutor?" He sounded stunned. She was buzzed enough that she didn't respond with her usual grace when questioned.

"Bridget has been telling you for years that we're a family of psychics. Just because you don't believe her doesn't mean it's not true." She giggled again, and finished her beer. "Don't let me have any more of them, 'kay?" She was already giggly, and the next step of Drunk-Ariel was _not_ appropriate for show on the first meeting with Wyatt's parents. Chris looked mildly alarmed, but not shocked or terrified, so she figured he thought she was joking. Melinda and Prudence shared a glance and turned to Ariel with grins on their faces.

"So, can you tell me my fortune?" Ariel, not knowing her well enough, didn't pick up on the teasing in Melinda's voice. Chris did- and he shot her a warning glare. He knew his sister well enough to know when she was about to start being mean, and together with Prue they could be the bitchiest pair he'd ever met.

Ariel nodded slowly, and held out her hand for Melinda to take it.

"I don't know you like I know Chris, so I'll need a physical anchor." Melinda offered her hand without question, but with a smug grin at her cousin. Around them, several of the cousins fell silent; watching. Even Piper and her sisters were watching, intrigued. Wyatt noticed the drop in conversation and glanced over at his girlfriend- what he saw almost made him groan. Ariel joked about being psychic- her whole family did. He thought it was cute and endearing, but then he was in love with her. This crowd? They would tear her to pieces.

Ariel grasped the girl's warm hand in hers and closed her eyes.

"I apologize in advance if I'm too drunk to do this right." Drugs and alcohol made her sight a little blurry, in more ways than one.

She sat for a moment in silence, and the crowd stilled and quietened around her. The tiniest of grins crossed Ariel's face.

"You really want to go to Georgetown, but you don't think you have the grades to get in, and you're afraid to move so far away from home. You'll be accepted to the University of San Fran, and you're going to be a wonderful doctor." Ariel's eyes shot open, and she looked a bit confused, "I didn't know your dad had been a doctor before he started teaching. But he'll be very proud to have you follow in his footsteps." Melinda had paled in front of her, and she snatched her hand back. Ariel grinned, a small smile that told Chris that the girl had been more aware of Melinda's skepticism than he had realized. "If you can't handle it, you shouldn't ask Mel." Melinda glared at her brother, believing that he _must_ have told her. She ignored the little voice that told her that she had never said anything to anyone about Georgetown. Prudence, next to her, thrust her hand forward boldly.

"Do me!" She sounded excited, and Chris groaned. Across the room, Phoebe moved to stop her child, but Piper's hand on her shoulder held her back.

"Let them, Pheebs. I want to see what will happen."

Ariel closed her hand over Prue's and closed her eyes again. It took her longer, this time, sitting and swaying as if to a beat only she could hear.

"You have a wonderful heart, Prue. It's so strong and… _fierce_, just like the woman you were named for." Phoebe blanched a little, disliking that this stranger would throw around information like that when she clearly didn't know squat. Wyatt paled, too, glancing between his mother and aunts- no-one mentioned the original Prudence Halliwell. No-one. Ever. Ariel had just committed the ultimate faux-pas and she didn't even know it. "You already know what you're going to do with your life, and you shouldn't doubt your own talent, you know?" Ariel giggled a little, and hiccuped, too. "And you have already met the man you're going to spend your life with- but you're _just_ stubborn enough that if I told you who it was, you'd deny it for years and make yourself and him miserable in the process." She snapped her eyes open and gave Chris a grin. "I like your family, Chris- so many charming futures in the one room." She grinned again, ignoring the incredulous stares from the assembled Halliwells.

"Can you tell me mine?" Phoebe kept her voice light as she darted across the floor, evading her sister's nimble hands.

Ariel looked up at her, eyes a little glazed, and nodded once.

"I won't need your hand." The girl muttered- something telling her that taking the woman's hand would not be a good idea. Not now, when her eyes were turning inwards and her gaze was on something that none of the rest of them could see. But either Phoebe didn't listen, or she didn't hear her, and the elder woman's hand clamped down on hers.

The pain that coursed through Ariel's body was like nothing else she'd ever felt, and her fingers clenched around Phoebe Halliwell's hand reflexively. Her head tilted back, her blonde hair whipping as she thrashed from side to side and she screamed, long and loud and piercing. Phoebe tried to release her; tried to break whatever connection she had made with the unwitting girl, but she couldn't- her hand was held in a tight grip and she couldn't break it.

What the hell?

Wyatt was at his girlfriend's side in seconds, skidding to his knees by her chair and grabbing her other hand in his.

"What the hell is going on? Aunt Phoebe? What did you do?" She shook her head in complete disbelief. She'd been hoping to get a read on the girl, that was all. She'd wanted to get a premonition, maybe, to see what role the girl was going to play in their lives- anyone who so casually mentioned her deceased sister was going to get grilled. That was it. She said as much, relieved that Ariel's screams died to whimpers and her thrashing reduced to tremors.

"I certainly mean for this to happen." The elder woman's eyes filled with tears as she was overwhelmed by the pain that Ariel was still feeling; it rolled off the girl in waves. Around the room, the other empaths clenched their fists and gritted their teeth and prayed for the pain to pass.

No-one noticed the door to the restaurant opening and a tall blonde ducking inside. She was wearing motorcycle leathers and held a helmet in her hand. Her gaze zeroed in on her sister and she groaned.

"Wyatt Halliwell, I leave you alone with her for _one_ evening, and this is what happens?" The reason Chris had never brought Bridget DuBois to meet his family? Because she was scary as all hell when she was angry, and she would rip them to teeny tiny shreds if she felt like it. Wyatt glanced up at Bridget, worry and guilt warring on his face.

"Bridge? I don't know what happened- she was just sitting here and my aunt took her hand and-" Bridget cut him off with a wave, dodging and weaving through the tables and the staring Halliwells until she reached her sister's side.

"No need to explain. I know what happened." She paused, peeling off her gloves and dropping them, and the helmet, onto the ground beside Ariel's handbag. "Your stupidity has rubbed off on her, and Ariel decided it would be a really good idea to drop her barriers in a room full of witches. Jeez, the psychic energy in here would even give my Dad a headache." Bridget gazed down at her sister, one eyebrow raised.

"Chris?" He'd been almost afraid to speak to her, but he answered when she called him.

"Yeah Bridge?" She tore her gaze from her sister and eyed him.

"Do that thing you do that means you get places fast and go get my mom." She glanced back at Ariel and sighed. "And Marie, if you can tear her out of bed. Oh, and tell mom that the thing that we thought would happen when Ariel met your family has happened."

Chris gaped.

"Chris! Go. Get my Mom. Now." Startled, he orbed out in a haze of shining blue lights. "That's so cool." Her voice was wistful. "Now you- move." She kicked Wyatt out of the way, and pushed the table away from Ariel's chair. She was careful not to touch her sister- she really didn't need to get sucked in there too. "Ariel, I warned you. I am going to hold this over you for the rest of your life." Her words were quiet, but the assembled crowd was so quiet that they all heard her anyway.

"What's going on?" Of course, it was the Halliwell Matriarch that spoke- sounding particularly worried and therefore, angry. Piper Halliwell didn't like things happening that she didn't understand, especially when there was no enemy she could blow up. Bridget glanced up at her from where she was crouched by the floor.

"Your sister tried to force a premonition from a powerful psychic who was drunk; tired and whose barriers were down so she could ease the family gently into the idea that she is, in fact, a powerful psychic. Oh, and Wyatt is an idiot." The boy next to her made a strangled sound, not knowing what question to ask first, and so worried he couldn't think straight. "Ariel got caught in the mystical backlash."

"Oh." Phoebe sounded so guilty that even Bridget felt badly for her.

"Don't worry Phoebe, my Mom will fix it. Well, she will as soon as Chris get's his ass back here."

"How do you know all this? I don't… " Bridget took pity on her sister's boyfriend and patted him on the shoulder in a manner that could be considered condescending.

"We've told you a _dozen_ times, in a dozen different ways that we're mediums, Wy." She made a face. "But you and Chris are so caught up in being different and special that every single time we said it, you thought it was a joke." She grinned, "I understand wanting to be the special one in a relationship but I hate to break it to you kiddo- I knew the second I met Chris that he was a witchlighter."

The tinkling bells of orbing cut him off before he asked any more questions, and everyone turned to see a middle-aged blonde woman and a young teenage girl materialise with Chris.

"Everyone, this is my mom- Alison DuBois, and my little sister Marie." Phoebe could feel the girl's relief at the arrival of her mother.

"Jeez… Ariel sure knows how to pick 'em." Marie stated. Her mother and sister laughed, just a little, and Alison moved closer to her eldest child.

"Bridge, I'm gonna have to go in there and get her, okay? I need you to act as my anchor." Alison glanced back at Marie. "And you, young lady, will take this as a warning to listen to me when I tell you that your barriers are important, okay?" Marie nodded slowly, watching as her eldest sister twitched and thrashed in her seat.

Alison turned to Phoebe, gently reaching out to her.

"I know you didn't mean for this to happen, so you need to stop blaming yourself. This was an accident- Ariel should never have agreed to read you." As she spoke, the blonde reached out and took Phoebe's hand where it joined Ariel's. Amazingly, the girl's grip relaxed when her mother touched her, and Phoebe's hand was free.

"Wyatt? Can you lay her on the floor, please?" The boy did as he was told, handling her child as though she were made of glass. "Bridget?" Her middle daughter sank to her knees and placed her hand carefully on her mother's shoulder, closing her eyes and reaching out to her mom on the inside. She could feel the thread of connection, and she could feel the moment that Alison lay her hands on Ariel's head and made her own connection.

Time ticked by for the Halliwell's- it was unusual for all of them to be surrounded by a mystical problem and not be involved in fixing it. Marie was crouched next to Chris, near to her sister's prone body.

"I am never, ever, ever, going to let this happen to me." She muttered, and Chris chuckled a little. She was worried- even he could tell, but Bridget would have wanted him to help her little sister feel better if he could.

"Does stuff like this happen to you guys a lot?" Of course, making her feel better seemed to mean making himself appear like an idiot in her mind.

"No, of course not. We usually deal with humans and human stuff- not the supernatural stuff that goes on around you people. Mystical comas are not the norm." She noticed that everyone grew even more confused.

"You're not witches?" Melinda spoke, her voice trembling with fear and repressed tears.

"Duh, much? Of course not. We're mediums. We talk to the dead and we see the future, or dream it, sometimes." She was so matter of fact about it than no-one even mentioned that those were _witch_ powers.

"So… you what, exactly? Tell fortunes on the side of the road?" Prudence was scared, but she was still a class-A bitch. Marie, a good two years younger than her and a damn sight less scary, laughed scornfully.

"My mom puts murderers in prison and we help the dead cross over. Don't be such a bitch just because you can." For all her brave words, Marie was nearly trembling with nerves and worry. Chris took her small hand in his and squeezed, in what he hoped was a reassuring way. "I should call my dad." She made no effort to grab her phone though, and Chris didn't think she really meant it.

"What does your dad do? Is he psychic too?" Marie didn't know the girl who asked the question- short, brown hair and green eyes. She laughed, loudly, in response.

"My dad is an engineer. He builds, like, rockets and stuff."

Around the room, the empaths gasped as one, moments before Ariel shot upwards into sitting position. Marie lunged at her, hugging her tightly in a display she would be embarrassed about later. Bridget, similarly, reached out a hand to touch her sister's shoulder, reassuring herself that Ariel was back in her body. Properly. Alison allowed herself a small smile before standing up.

"It's been lovely and all, but I'd like to go home now." She was clearly exhausted, and Chris stepped forward quickly, eager to get out of the room before Bridget ripped him a new one.

Ariel glanced around, meeting Wyatt's eyes where he sat, watching her.

"Uh… surprise?"

Bridget, her blonde curls bouncing, was the only one who laughed.

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A/N: I know, I know. Random and strange. But... meh. I enjoyed writing it, so... :)


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